Evercore ISI Begins Coverage on CalAtlantic Group Inc. (CAA)

Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of CalAtlantic Group Inc. (NYSE:CAA) in a report published on Monday morning. The brokerage issued a buy rating on the stock.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on CAA. FBR & Co reissued a marketperform rating on shares of CalAtlantic Group in a research note on Tuesday, September 27th. Zacks Investment Research downgraded CalAtlantic Group from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 27th. RBC Capital Markets reaffirmed an outperform rating and issued a $43.00 target price (down previously from $48.00) on shares of CalAtlantic Group in a research report on Monday, August 1st. TheStreet raised CalAtlantic Group from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Friday, July 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a buy rating on shares of CalAtlantic Group in a research report on Thursday, November 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. The stock presently has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $42.29.

CalAtlantic Group (NYSE:CAA) traded up 3.27% during trading on Monday, reaching $33.13. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 412,183 shares. CalAtlantic Group has a 52-week low of $26.97 and a 52-week high of $43.24. The stock has a market cap of $3.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.45 and a beta of 1.48. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $32.20 and its 200-day moving average is $35.24.

CalAtlantic Group (NYSE:CAA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 26th. The company reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.94 by $0.03. CalAtlantic Group had a return on equity of 11.73% and a net margin of 6.44%. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.59 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that CalAtlantic Group will post $3.41 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 15th will be given a dividend of $0.04 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 13th. This represents a $0.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. CalAtlantic Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.56%.

In other news, CMO Wendy L. Marlett sold 18,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.51, for a total transaction of $621,180.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 54,396 shares in the company, valued at $1,877,205.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 37.80% of the company’s stock.

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CAA. BlackRock Group LTD boosted its stake in shares of CalAtlantic Group by 28.8% in the first quarter. BlackRock Group LTD now owns 45,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,507,000 after buying an additional 10,075 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in CalAtlantic Group by 3.6% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 500,443 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,724,000 after buying an additional 17,476 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in CalAtlantic Group during the first quarter worth about $17,731,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its position in CalAtlantic Group by 20.0% in the first quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 103,254 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,451,000 after buying an additional 17,193 shares during the period. Finally, AMP Capital Investors Ltd bought a new position in CalAtlantic Group during the first quarter worth about $390,000.

About CalAtlantic Group

CalAtlantic Group, Inc, formerly Standard Pacific Corp., is a diversified builder of single-family attached and detached homes. The Company operates through two segments: homebuilding and financial services. The Company’s homebuilding segment operations include acquiring and developing land, and constructing and selling single-family attached and detached homes.